Installing VMware Workstation on SLED/SLES

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10
VMware Workstation

Situation

vmmon module error during vmware-config.pl
unable to build the vmmon module
Installing VMware Workstation on SLED
Installing VMware Workstation on Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop

Resolution

Use VMware Workstation 5.5.2 if you are installing on SLED/SLES 10. VMware 5.5.2 is fully supported on these platforms.

If you are running VMware 5.5.0 or 5.5.1, you can perform the following manual steps:

NOTE: Before running the VMware configuration script, the following packages must be installed: kernel-source, gcc,gcc-c++. Also make sure to run 'make cloneconfig;make prepare-all' from the /usr/src/linux directory as the ROOT user (Note that with SLEx 11 this command is 'make cloneconfig;make prepare' instead, "prepare-all" no longer works).

Automated steps:

The easiest way is to download a utility called'vmware-any-any-update' which automates the process below. You can download the any-any update by going to http://ftp.cvut.cz/vmware/ and looking for'vmware-any-any-update101.tar.gz'.

1. Install the VMware Workstation rpm.
2. Extract the vmware-any-any-update file to a temporary directory
3. As root, run 'runme.pl'
4. 'runme.pl' will automatically configure the vmmon and vmnet modules and launch 'vmware-config.pl' when complete.

Manual steps:

Perform the following steps:

1. Install the VMware Workstation rpm.
2. Before running vmware-config.pl go to the /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source directory. You should find two .tar files 'vmmon.tar' and 'vmnet.tar'
3. Extract both via 'tar xf vmmon.tar' and 'tar xf vmnet.tar'
4. You should find a Makefile.kernel in both vmmon-only/ and vmnet-only/ directories
5. Edit both Makefile.kernel files by adding the following parameter just after-Iinclude2/asm/mach-default(on the same line).

-DKBUILD_BASENAME=\"$(DRIVER)\"

For example:

$(EXTRA_CFLAGS) -Iinclude2/asm/mach-default-DKBUILD_BASENAME=\"$(DRIVER)\"\

6. Rename the existing vmmon.tar and vmnet.tar via 'mv vmmon.tar vmmon.tar.save' and 'mv vmnet.tar vmnet.tar.save'.
7. Create new tar files via 'tar cf vmmon.tar vmmon-only/' and 'tar cf vmnet.tar vmnet-only/'.
8. Run vmware-config.pl and it should complete without any errors.

Additional Information

Formerly known as TID# 10100736

Disclaimer

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